High-speed chase ends in Murrieta

MURRIETA —— A three-county, 100-mile, high-speed pursuit that
began in California's high desert ended on the city's rural west
side Wednesday with the arrest of a Lancaster man and woman.

The pair are suspected of being part of a trio involved in
dozens of recent home burglaries in the Lake Los Angeles area, east
of Palmdale, officials said.

The suspects, identified by the California Highway Patrol as
Hugo De La Cruz Perez, 21, and Natalie June Morris,19, were taken
into custody on Washington Avenue, south of Guava Street, about two
hours after the pursuit that began when police in Lake Los Angeles
spotted the three suspects leaving a home they had allegedly just
burglarized, authorities said.

The third suspect, identified only as a 16-year-old juvenile
from Lake Los Angeles, was arrested in Lake Elsinore on Interstate
15, north of Diamond Drive. The juvenile had jumped from the back
seat of the fleeing Toyota Corolla when it slowed after running
over a spike strip that had been placed across freeway lanes,
flattening one tire.

The arrest of Perez and Morris took place after a tense
30-minute standoff in which the suspects, one of whom was thought
to be armed, refused to get out of the vehicle, which had come to a
stop.

About 20 California Highway Patrol officers surrounded the
Toyota with guns and rifles drawn. Using a loudspeaker, one officer
attempted to talk the suspects into getting out of the car.

"At one point, we saw the (male) driver lean over and kiss the
female in the front seat," said CHP Sgt. John Sellers. "The officer
said to the driver, 'Don't you want to take care of your
girlfriend?'"

However, when that failed to convince the couple to give up,
Murrieta police were called in and fired two rounds of pepper balls
at the car. The irritating gas apparently encouraged the couple to
get out of the car and they were arrested, officers said.

The pursuit began about 10:30 a.m. after Los Angeles County
sheriff's deputies received an anonymous call that a home was being
burglarized in the unincorporated area of Lake Los Angeles, about
80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, said Lt. Wallace Fullerton of
the Sheriff's Department's Lancaster station.

"Deputies were dispatched to the residence and they discovered
three suspects leaving," Fullerton said. "The three suspects jumped
in this vehicle and the pursuit started."

The suspects are believed to have burglarized as many as 30
homes in the Lake Los Angeles area, often stealing weapons,
authorities said.

The chase reached speeds of 90 mph on rural desert highways and
Interstate 215 before the deputies handed it off to the California
Highway Patrol about 10 miles into neighboring San Bernardino
County, Fullerton said.

The San Bernardino CHP radioed ahead to Temecula-based CHP
officers when the chase headed southbound on Interstate 15 and the
local officers were dispatched to just north of Diamond Drive in
Lake Elsinore where the first of three attempts was made to stop
the car using spike strips.

The initial try flattened the front right tire and brought the
chase to a stop temporarily. Before officers could move in on the
car, though, the suspects drove off, continuing south to the Bundy
Canyon Road exit. There, after leaving the freeway, the car stopped
again.

This time, the driver jumped out of the Toyota and attempted to
carjack another vehicle, said CHP's Sellers.

"The driver of the car (that the suspect) attempted to carjack
drove off, and the suspect ran back to his own car," Sellers
said.

CHP cars then surrounded the Toyota and at one point rammed into
the vehicle, but the suspect was able to drive away, heading west
on Bundy Canyon Road in Wildomar, then south on Mission Trail and
continuing on the road where the name changes to Palomar
Street.

Some media outlets reported that shots had been fired at the
Bundy Canyon Road location, but CHP officer Ron Thatcher said no
shots other than the pepper balls were fired by either officers or
suspects during the pursuit.

A second spike strip laid across the road at Palomar and Gruwell
streets flattened the Toyota's right rear tire but failed to slow
the vehicle. The driver managed to avoid a third spike strip placed
on Palomar Street at Murrieta's city limits where the road becomes
Washington Avenue, Thatcher said.

The chase entered Murrieta about noon and continued south,
approaching Murrieta Valley High School.

After receiving word the suspects in the fleeing vehicle might
be armed, four Murrieta schools in the vicinity of pursuit's path
were "locked down," said Karen Parris, spokeswoman for the Murrieta
Valley Unified School District.

Students in the district were on a short day Wednesday, which
meant most were about to be sent home at noon, roughly the same
time the chase entered the city. School was still in session at
Cole Canyon Elementary, Murrieta Elementary and Thompson Middle
School when the pursuit sped down Washington and students there
were kept in classrooms, Parris said.

Murrieta Valley High School students had been dismissed at 11:30
a.m. and were still leaving the campus around the time the chase
went by.

"We rounded up the students who were still on the campus and
kept them together," Parris said.

The pursuit passed the high school without incident, said
Murrieta police Sgt. Sean Hadden. As the chase sped south toward
the tree-lined, two-lane downtown area, Murrieta police, with
sirens wailing, converged and motioned motorists and pedestrians to
clear out of the way.

About 12:10 p.m., with acrid smoke pouring from what was left of
the vehicle's tires and wheels, the Toyota tore thought the
historic district at more than 50 mph, blowing through several
stops signs with CHP units just behind.

The Toyota continued south on Washington Avenue into the city's
rural farm country where it came to a stop. The suspects were
confronted by police officers, followed by a cadre of news
photographers, with television station helicopters from all around
Southern California hovering overhead and an unfazed collection of
cows and horses grazing nearby. The suspects surrendered about
12:40 p.m.

A search of the car turned up stereo gear and what appeared to
be a telescope, though no weapons were found in the vehicle,
authorities said.

Deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
arrived shortly after 1 p.m. and took custody of the suspects.

Thatcher said no accidents or pedestrian injuries resulted from
the chase and that, as of late Wednesday, the victim of the
attempted carjacking on Bundy Canyon Road had not come forward.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact staff
writer John Hunneman at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2603 or
jhunneman@californian.com
.